


One By One

by MaliceManaged



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, I Really like that Tag, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Paranoia, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, halloween fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 10:44:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliceManaged/pseuds/MaliceManaged
Summary: It all started with a complete, city-wide blackout.It only went downhill from there...





	One By One

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to me, bitches, I _made it!!_
> 
> *ahem* I mean... yeah. Halloween Fic 2019! Woo! This one turned out bloodier than last year's fic. Which was actually the easy part to write because I am who I am. Enjoy. XD

It started with a complete, city-wide blackout. Loki had been idly doodling on the tablet his lover had gotten him for Jul when everything went dark; his first thought was to be annoyed at the mortals’ subpar power infrastructure, but a moment later remembered that the tower was supposed to be on its own grid and should therefore not be affected by anything that happened in the rest of the city. With that in mind, he set the tablet down and stood, conjuring a little glowing ball in his hand to light the way as he stepped into the hall. The elevator was obviously not an option, and so he opted for the stairs, figuring he may as well look for someone else and maybe even get some answers.

He hadn’t been searching for long before he walked into a room and his ears were promptly assaulted by a really quite impressive shriek, born from the mouth of one Virginia “Pepper” Potts, who stood inside wide eyed with a hand clutching her chest.

“Oh, my _ god, _ you scared the life out of me!” she managed, trying to get her heart-rate down.

“I would apologise,” he replied with a grimace, rubbing at his ear to try and get the ringing to stop, “But I think you possibly shattering my eardrums rather makes us even.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t exactly expecting to run into you like this.” Her brow furrowed, “Wait, you’re not even allowed on this floor!”

“Yes, it would seem Stark’s construct has been deactivated,” he frowned, “Which would mean his security measures have been as well. I would suggest you not wander unarmed.”

“I’m… I’m not, but… thank you for the concern.”

He smiled knowingly. “Surprised? I don’t see why; I have no animosity towards you, Miss Potts. You have never tried to kill me.”

“Oh, is that what it takes?” Pepper asked with a slightly nervous laugh.

He shrugged. “That, or being Odin; so you are quite safe. I am going to assume you have not run into anyone else thus far?”

“No, which is more than a little weird; business hours are barely over, there should still be people leaving or working late.”

“Your phone?”

“No signal. Yours?” He shook his head. “It _ has _ to be an attack. But by who, and why?”

“Shall we find out?” he asked, offering her his arm. She eyed him suspiciously and he huffed a laugh. “I can assure you, Miss Potts; I have nothing to do with this. Cerise would murder me if I started anything of this magnitude without her, and I rather like living.”

“… Well, I guess that’s true,” Pepper replied, strangely reassured, before taking his arm.

He increased the glow from the orb for her sake then they continued on. They ran into a few Stark Industries employees as they moved through the floors, but none of the Avengers, which he thought was a bit odd but chose not to say so aloud, knowing it would most likely alarm the others and not wishing to deal with any panicking on top of whatever was going on. He was certainly glad for Pepper’s presence, as she was doing an admirable job keeping the rest of them calm.

They had decided to convene in the lobby, and he barely stepped through the stairwell door when his hand shot up in time to catch the arrow, inches away from his face. Out of spite, he snapped it in half before tossing it back at Clint, glaring at him.

“I am well aware of your opinion of me, Barton, but I would expect you’d have the sense not to endanger civilians over it.”

“What the hell did you do?” Clint demanded, another arrow at the ready.

“Clint, for god’s sake, put that down!” Pepper chastised, stepping between them, “He didn’t do this, we’re all just as confused here.”

“What, did _ he _ tell you that? You trust him to actually tell you the truth?” Clint asked, not lowering his weapon as he glared at Loki.

“I don’t trust him at all. No offense,” she added to Loki.

“Oh, none taken; it is, generally speaking, a wise policy,” he replied pleasantly.

Clint looked at him incredulously. “Seriously?”

“Have you met with anyone else?” Pepper asked, wanting to get back to the situation at hand.

“Yeah, I ran into Steve on my way back,” he replied, lowering his bow, “There were a couple of car crashes when the power went out, he stayed behind to help and told me to get here when we found out the phones weren’t working. We figured Tony might have something to use, you know? Didn’t expect the blackout to affect the tower.”

“It shouldn’t,” Pepper said, worrying her bottom lip, “Tony’s at a conference in China, and I haven’t been able to reach him.”

“You better give me a damn good reason to believe you didn’t do this,” he turned to Loki warningly.

“Besides the fact that I quite simply do not have the ability to simultaneously affect both the city and the tower’s power grids, displace several hundred – if not thousand – people, _ and _ remain conscious?” Loki asked back pointedly. “Take a good look and tell me what I am missing.”

Clint scoffed but humoured the god; after a moment he frowned. “Where’s Cerise?”

“Precisely.”

Clint had to admit (if only begrudgingly) that was evidence enough. He still didn’t understand how the woman could actually _ love _ Loki, but if the incident involving a kidnapping and an overachieving two-bit villain – and the subsequent hospitalization required after Loki was done with him – was any indication, the feeling was mutual. Whatever his feelings about the asgardian-not-actually-asgardian, he didn’t think Loki would put Cerise at risk. And leaving her alone in a ‘suddenly plunged into total darkness’ city seemed a tad risky.

“Alright, fine; so maybe you didn’t do this. I’m not convinced you’re not involved _ somehow.” _

Loki rolled his eyes. “Since you are here, you can make yourself useful and watch over these people,” he declared, beginning to head to the front doors.

“And where the hell are you going?”

“To find the only person in this Norns forsaken realm that actually matters to me,” Loki called over his shoulder.

“By yourself?” Pepper called after him, surprised by how concerned she was at the prospect.

Loki paused and looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. “Well, yes. Why; would you like to join me?” he asked, expecting an immediate refusal.

Pepper hesitated a moment. “Well, I just… I think maybe we should all stick together. At least until we know what’s going on.”

“I agree,” Clint added, narrowing his eyes at Loki suspiciously, “If only so I can keep an eye on you.”

“Very well; if you must,” Loki replied with an annoyed sigh.

With that they set off, and Loki had to admit, the city felt very eerie with the near complete darkness and the stillness of the lack of people. Loki lead the way, refusing to even entertain any ideas of going anywhere but the direction of Cerise’s apartment first, though Pepper supported the decision, concerned herself for the woman. Luckily it wasn’t too far, as Loki had successfully convinced her to move closer to the tower.

They were about two blocks away when the silence was shattered by a piercing scream somewhere nearby, setting them on edge. Clint ran towards the sound to investigate, the other glowing orb Loki had conjured trailing after him, while the rest of them followed a little farther back for the safety of the civilians. A fact that Loki used to their advantage to keep the civilians away when Clint swore loudly as he rounded the corner to an alley; he looked at Pepper, who nodded, then went the rest of the way to see what had disturbed the archer so badly. He turned the corner and stopped in his tracks, blinking in shock at the scene before them: There scattered all over the alley were the… well, remains of what he _ thought _ was once a person, it was a bit hard to tell. Though the pavement and walls were awash with so much blood it was impossible to have come from one single person, so they were likely looking at the bits and pieces of several victims.

“What the absolute _ fuck,” _ Clint managed after a moment, not even caring that he was addressing Loki with a distinct lack of hostility.

“I’ve a feeling we do not wish to find out,” Loki replied, “More importantly; we are not alone.”

Clint turned to him for clarification, but the god wasn’t looking at him. He followed Loki’s gaze to a dumpster in the corner, and the clearly terrified little girl hiding behind it. “Shit,” he put his bow away and slowly approached her, “Hey, kid. It’s okay; I’m not gonna hurt you.” He knelt before the girl, who cowered back with a whimper. “It’s okay, sweetie, you’re safe now. Do you know who I am?” The girl looked at him for a moment then nodded. “Then you know I’m one of the good guys.” The girl nodded again. “Good. You want to come with me, then? I’ll introduce you to my friend Pepper. You’ll like her; she’s really nice.”

Slowly, he managed to coax the girl out from behind the dumpster, carrying her over to Pepper and the others, Loki following close behind keeping an eye out for any signs of whatever had caused the mess in the alley returning. As soon as they were introduced, the girl – whose name they learned was Sarah, which was as much as they got from her – latched onto Pepper, who was quite horrified to hear of what she may have witnessed. Which they would eventually have to ask about, they knew, though not a one of them was particularly eager to do it. Instead they continued on their way to Cerise’s apartment, growing more uneasy by the minute.

They reached the building without further incident, where Loki left the technician he basically ordered to come with him to catch up as he ran up the stairs to the right floor. He had to physically refrain from just bursting through Cerise’s door, realising that would probably scare her to death, though he did have to unlock it with his seidr, having forgotten his key. When the door resisted his light push, he realised she had thrown on the bolts, causing him to use another wave of seidr to unlock them before finally opening the door, only to have to dodge the kitchen knife thrown at him.

“Bor be damned, woman, it’s me!” he cried out as the brunette in the wheelchair took aim with another knife.

“Loki!” Cerise gasped, lowering the knife back to the small pile on her lap and wheeling over to him, “Are you okay??”

“Somewhat regretting teaching you how to throw, but I am unharmed,” he replied, meeting her halfway and kneeling before her, checking her over, “Are _ you _ alright?”

“I’ll be fine as soon as the damn painkillers kick in,” she dismissed, though she didn’t stop him from fussing over her, knowing how worried he must have been to be so blatant about it. “What is going on? I was checking my email, and everything just went dark. My phone has no signal, so I went over to Mrs. Evans to see if I could use her phone, but she didn’t answer; so I used my key to make sure she was okay but she’s just not there, and then I heard some _ really _ weird noises and screaming and _ what the fuck is going on??” _

“I don’t know, but it is not safe here.” He flicked a hand and the knives on her lap disappeared. “Go get your cane; I had someone come up with me, as soon as he gets here, we are leaving.”

She nodded and went over to her living room, picking up the collapsible cane and her purse she’d left on the coffee table then returning. Loki handed her one of her jackets from the closet then they went out into the hall and to the stairs; when the technician got there, Loki lifted Cerise into his arms (earning a halfhearted complaint about having let him talk her into moving to a fourth floor) while the other man carried the chair, and they went back down to the others.

Cerise frowned as she looked among them then turned to Clint. “Hey, where’s the rest of you?”

“No idea, except for Tony being in China,” he replied, “And Steve’s out there doing his thing. We’re gonna go find him, but Loki wanted to get you first. You okay?”

“Meh,” she replied with a shrug. “Do we at least have an idea where Captain Rogers is? Seems a bit risky to just be wandering the city blindly.”

“We don’t really have much of a choice; we can’t exactly call him.”

“Well, okay, but I’m sticking to him,” she pointed at Loki, who snorted amusedly.

“Wow, thanks,” Clint deadpanned.

Back out into the streets they went, with Clint leading the way to where he’d last seen Steve. He wasn’t sure the soldier would still be there, but it was better than nothing. They did take a route that would take them close to the tower, figuring Steve could possibly head there once he was done helping the crash victims. They heard the few occasional screams, but the sounds were too distorted by distance for them to really tell where they were coming from, which did little for their nerves, especially Sarah’s. The girl had been a bit curious about Cerise’s chair, so the woman had asked her if she wanted to sit with her so she wouldn’t have to walk ‘like the rest of the peasants’, which had pulled a shaky laugh from her as she agreed. A flash of light ahead caused Clint to gesture for them all to stop, and Loki quickly moved up from his rear-guarding position just in case.

The flash came again and they realised it was a flashlight, which was odd as the one flashlight one of them had had at the tower stopped working and refused to turn back on since, which had led them to assume it was part of whatever had caused all the power to go out. They watched for a moment then Steve came into view turning the corner followed by six people, one of which was being supported by two others.

“Clint!” Steve called when he saw them, hurrying over. As soon as they got within a few feet of Clint’s group, the flashlight stuttered before going out altogether, and Steve looked down at it bemusedly. “What the hell?” He shrugged it off and looked back up. “I thought you were heading back to the tower.”

“I did. Power was out there, too. Grabbed these guys,” Clint replied, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the civilians, “Then we went to pick up Cerise. These all the people you could find?”

“Yeah, it’s… Whatever’s going on, it seems to have affected the whole city. Doesn’t seem to be much sense to the disappearances that I can tell, they’re just… gone.”

“We should get back to the tower; even without JARVIS online, it should be safer than other buildings. We can drop off the civilians and see if we can find anyone else out here.”

“What about the screams we heard?” one lab tech asked nervously, “What if whatever’s out there gets into the building? The doors won’t even lock with the power out!”

“Well, it is a good thing my spells do not require such,” Loki countered, “I will ward the building so that whatever threat is out here will not be able to get through.”

“And we’re supposed to just trust _ you?” _ a man from Steve’s group scoffed.

“Not at all. In fact, you are more than welcome to stay out here for all I care,” Loki replied coolly.

“Okay, let’s not be at each other’s throats here; that’s not gonna help anyone,” Steve interjected, “Clint’s right; we have to try and find anyone else we can, but we’re exposed out here. The tower’s our best bet to keep everyone safe, so that’s where we’re going.”

“How do we know he’s not doing this?” the man insisted.

“Even if he was – which, for the record, I don’t believe – that doesn’t really change the facts.”

The man huffed but ultimately remained silent. With no further arguments, they turned to head for the tower, Steve and Loki taking point while Clint took up position behind the civilians. Once they were all inside, Loki cast his wards then Steve and Clint went back outside, the small rune Loki had charged and distributed to keep the globes of light he’d conjured for everyone powered in hand. Pepper had everyone else gather by the front desk to make sure they were all alright, when they noticed a very serious problem.

“Where’s Lucy?” one of the SI employees – a data analyst, Pepper vaguely remembered – asked, looking around her.

“Who?” the man who’d taken issue with Loki asked.

“She works with me, her cubicle is right next to mine,” the woman responded, starting to panic a bit, “She was _ right there _ behind me; where is she??”

“Okay, let’s try to stay calm,” Pepper urged. “When did you last see her?”

“I-I don’t know! She was _ right there!” _

“What does she look like?” Cerise asked, both for the benefit of Steve’s group and to try and keep her focused, absently rubbing Sarah’s back to try and keep her calm.

“U-um, she’s short; blonde hair, she always braids it; brown eyes, she wears these glasses – you know, like, uhm, like cat eyes, I think they’re called? She loves those things; she says they make her feel sexy,” she laughed nervously. “She was supposed to be off today, but our manager called her in, so she just showed up wearing this flowery dress and a denim jacket. She was right there,” she finished with a sob.

“Look, I’m sure she’s fine,” a young man wearing a Meshuggah t-shirt and jeans tried to console her, making sure the injured man he’d been supporting was alright in the chair another had brought over before walking to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, “Maybe she went to the bathroom, or something?”

“I could go check?” a woman from Steve’s group suggested, mostly just needing something to do to stave off her own growing panic.

Pepper nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

While they did that, Loki went over to the front doors, Cerise following him after leaving Sarah in the care of the others. He checked the wards absently, most of his attention on the darkness outside. Cerise unfolded her cane and carefully stood up, going over to him and leaning against his side, his arm coming up to wrap around her waist instinctually.

“What is it?” she asked quietly, not wanting to alarm the others unnecessarily.

Loki scanned the street a moment longer then looked down at her. “Something feels off.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mean the darkness.”

“Then what?”

“I am not sure yet.”

“Do you know the woman they’re looking for?”

“I remember coming upon her and her friend,” his brow furrowed a bit, “But now that I think of it, I don’t remember her coming back here with us.”

“What, so she’s out _ there??” _ she asked a bit louder than she intended in her alarm.

“I fucking knew it!” the man who’d taken issue with Loki exclaimed, having come up behind them and heard Cerise, “I knew you were up to something!”

“Man, what are you talking about,” the injured man said tiredly, utterly fed up with him.

“That Lucy chick they’re looking for; he left her out there!”

“I highly doubt that,” Pepper interjected as she and the other woman returned from their search.

“He fucking did! I practically heard this bitch say it!” he retorted angrily, pointing at Cerise.

Cerise preemptively grabbed hold of Loki’s shirt, which was all that kept him from retaliating for the insult. “Listen, asshole; if you’re going to be eavesdropping on other people’s conversations, the least you could do is listen to the whole thing before you go leaping to conclusions.” She turned to Pepper. “Did you find anything?”

“No, the bathroom’s empty. So, what _ were _ you saying?”

Loki took a deep, steadying breath before replying. “What I _ said _ was that, while I recall seeing this woman before we left here; I do not recall her being with us upon our return.”

Pepper thought for a moment. “Yeah, me neither,” she looked at the others, “Does anyone remember seeing Lucy when we got back?”

They all shook their heads, and the man comforting Lucy’s friend added, “I actually don’t remember seeing her at all.”

“Yeah, me neither,” the other woman in Steve’s group chimed, prompting the rest of them to concur.

They all shared an uneasy look. “So, she’s… out there with…” Lucy’s friend managed in a small voice.

“Well, maybe Captain America, or… that other guy, I forget his name. Maybe they’ll find her?” the woman who’d volunteered to check the bathroom suggested.

“Yeah!” the injured man agreed, “I mean, they’re superheroes, right? That’s, like, their job.”

“What, finding random bimbos who can’t even manage to stick with the group?”

“Hey, man, how about you show a little respect?” the man comforting Lucy’s friend snapped.

“How about you kiss my ass, you fa-” whatever else the man intended to say cut off abruptly, and he stood there mouthing words that produced no sound, growing increasingly agitated.

“Thank you, Loki,” Pepper said, having seen him cast the spell that silenced the man.

“Oh, it was my absolute pleasure, I assure you.” The man looked at him horrified and Loki smiled sharply, “You will get your voice back when you have something actually worthwhile to say. Until then, the rest of us will enjoy the peace.”

“How did she just disappear without anyone noticing?” Cerise asked, trying to think back to see if she could remember anything standing out that could explain it and coming up empty.

“She was always at the back of the group, wasn’t she?” one of the lab technicians asked.

“Yeah, along with…” the technician who’d helped Loki get Cerise began, looking behind him to a man in a grey suit, “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name…?”

The man blinked slowly. “Chris,” he replied after a moment, “I work in accounting.”

“… Right,” the technician said, shifting a bit uncomfortably, “So when did you last see her?”

Chris tilted his head in thought. “When we met with Captain Rogers. I think.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right to me,” the other lab tech said, “I don’t remember seeing her after that.”

“So, what, something snatched her from right behind you guys without you noticing?” the other man who’d been supporting the injured man asked nervously, “What the hell could do that?”

“A surprisingly large number of things,” Loki replied, “But not many that one would expect to find in this realm.”

“Well, that’s not unsettling at all, thanks,” one of the women commented sarcastically.

Loki made to reply, but was cut off by a sudden shriek coming from outside that did not sound even remotely human, causing them all to jump, a few startled cries accompanying the sound. Cerise and Loki, who were closest to the front doors, scanned the area but the sound seemed to have come from farther away, for they saw nothing out in the street. The rest of them huddled closer together, seeking the theoretical safety of numbers mostly unconsciously.

“What the fuck was that?” Lucy’s friend asked shakily after a moment.

Nobody replied. Nobody _ could _ reply; they had as much of an idea of what the shriek could be, and about as much inclination to guess. When nothing else happened after a few minutes, they somewhat relaxed, or at least as much as they could under the circumstances, though Sarah suddenly began sobbing, causing the woman looking after her to try and calm her down.

Cerise looked up at Loki. “Okay, I’m getting kinda worried about Captain Rogers and Agent Barton,” she admitted quietly, “We don’t even know what’s out there.”

“They are warriors; they will either deal with the danger, or they will die fighting,” Loki replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, _ that’s _ a cheery thought.”

“What do you wish me to say, Cerise? My responsibility lies here, and they knew that as well; that is why they did not contest my staying.”

“He’s right,” Pepper agreed, “We’d be pretty defenseless here otherwise; there’s only so much I can do with a taser, even one made by Tony.”

“Our advantage can’t be that much, considering what happened with Lucy,” Cerise argued then looked up at Loki, “Be honest with me; we’re out of our depth, aren’t we?”

“We don’t have all the information we need,” Loki countered, “So I suppose, for the moment at least, we are. But that will change. I _ will _ figure this out.”

What he didn’t say was how unsettled he felt that he had completely missed someone being taken mere feet behind him. He hadn’t sensed anything off in particular, mostly because the entire _ city _ felt off to him, and he still didn’t know _ why. _ There was some kind of magic involved, he knew that much, but that wasn’t much use if he couldn’t figure out what it even meant. He severely disliked not knowing.

“Come, you should sit,” he said, turning Cerise towards her chair.

“I’m _ fine,” _ she huffed, but let him lead her anyway, knowing he wouldn’t relent until she did. It was the same for a while after she’d been kidnapped.

As he made sure Cerise was settled, Loki looked up at the rest of them and frowned. “Were there not fourteen of us?”

Immediately they all looked around, taking count of who was there and who was not, before noticing that the technician who had helped Loki was not there anymore. The little calm there had been disappeared in an instant as they all realised the fact and what it had to mean.

“Oh, god, it’s in here with us!” one of them cried, causing them to look around them in terror.

“Okay, we don’t know that,” Pepper said, trying to keep hold of her quickly fraying calm, “Maybe whatever made everyone else disappear is just catching up with the rest of us; and for all we know, they’re all perfectly fine.”

“And if they’re not??”

“Then there is likely nothing we can do to help them,” Loki replied, “And panicking is of little use to the rest of us.”

“Easy for you to say; none of it seems to affect _ you! _ Funny how that works out,” came the accusation.

“Yes, let us throw baseless accusations around; _ that _ will help,” he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Before anyone could retort to that, Lucy’s friend let out a scream, pointing at the front doors, causing them to look in time to see a bleeding Clint being half dragged by Steve coming towards them. Loki swore under his breath and hurried to the doors, undoing the wards there so they could enter the building and replacing them as soon as they had. Steve took Clint over to the front desk, laying him out there while Loki conjured whatever medical supplies from the medical room he thought they might need. One of the women in Steve’s group turned out to be a nurse, so with some assistance she was able to get all of Clint’s wounds dealt with, as they were luckily not more serious that she could manage with what she had at hand, though he had lost consciousness.

“What _ happened _ out there?” Pepper asked Steve as soon as they were sure Clint wasn’t going to bleed to death on the desk.

“I have no idea; I found him like that,” Steve replied, “I turned a corner and this… _ thing _ rushed off. I couldn’t get a good look at it, it was too fast.”

“Well, that probably saved his life.”

“Or more likely interrupted the creature’s game,” Loki corrected, earning looks ranging from confused to disturbed, and he sighed, “Look at his wounds; none of them are fatal on their own. It was toying with him.”

“What the _ fuck _ is going on??”

“Well, whatever it is, it shouldn’t be able to get past those wards, right? So we should be safe for now at least,” Steve reasoned.

“Yes and no,” Loki replied.

“What do you mean?”

“We may have another problem here. One of our numbers vanished about the time we met up with you and your group, and whatever caused it seems to have followed us here _ before _ I cast the wards, as another was taken just before you and Barton returned.”

Steve looked around them, noticing there was indeed one less person than he remembered. “… Shit. So, what do we do?” That got him a surprised look. “Look, I may not really _ get _ it, but this whole situation screams ‘magic’ and I know that’s your area of expertise. If you have any ideas, I’m all ears.”

Loki took a moment to try to wrap his mind around the fact that he’d just been both recognised as the expert he was _ and _ asked for help on the matter. “There is most definitely magic at work, but I have not been able to trace it to anything I recognise. There is simply too _ much; _ it is confusing. I do know one thing: If whatever caused our two disappearances is in fact a sentient creature; then we are no safer in here than out there, at least without knowing what it even looks like so we may defeat or avoid it.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Pepper sighed.

“So, you want us to, what, go _ out there _ with whatever did _ that _ to Hawkeye??”

“I am saying we may not have much of a choice in the matter.”

“Hey, where’s Chris?” Cerise asked, causing them to look around to see he was, in fact, missing.

“Here,” he spoke up behind one of the other men.

“Fucking hell!” the man exclaimed, practically jumping out of his skin, “Don’t fucking sneak up on people, man! Nearly gave me a heart attack, _ fuck.” _

Chris merely stared at him blankly, making the man step away nervously. Cerise moved closer to Loki, feeling very uneasy, and he wordlessly placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, eyeing the strange man intently. He could attribute the oddity to shock, after all they were all on edge, but he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there might be something else going on. Until he could find evidence either way, he resolved to keep a close eye on the man.

A sensible plan, if not for –

“Oh, Sarah, no!” the woman looking after the girl exclaimed, and they looked towards her to see the girl had run away deeper into the building.

The woman immediately ran after the girl, and Loki and Steve made to follow but the former stopped short and blocked the soldier, eyes wide. Sarah had not taken the light-charged rune he’d given her with her, so as she moved away from the nearest globe, her shadow was briefly cast on a far wall.

And it was most certainly _ not _ that of a small human child.

“Oh, _ fuck,” _ he swore. He turned to Steve, who had pushed off his arm and made to continue, and shoved him back. “Stay with them!”

Without any explanation, Loki rushed off after the ‘girl’ and the woman who’d unwittingly followed, hoping he wouldn’t be too late. A hope that proved futile, as a blood-curdling scream rent the air mere moments later. Loki burst into the room the scream had come from to find the creature now resembling its shadow, its numerous spiked arms impaled all the way through the unfortunate woman. With the same scream they had heard before finding ‘Sarah’, the creature tore the woman into pieces, more than proving Loki’s suspicions that it had been the culprit of the mess back in that alley.

“Well played, creature,” Loki had to give it credit for fooling him.

It hissed at him, shaking off the pieces of the woman that still clung to its spikes and advancing upon him. Loki waited until it lunged to move, conjuring a sword as he dodged, slicing several of its arms clean off, causing it to let out another disturbingly human-sounding scream as it backed away spewing black blood from its wounds. With another hiss it lunged again, blocking Loki’s sword with one of its remaining arms and attacking with the rest. Loki accepted the block and rolled away from the arms, instead gathering seidr in his free hand and shoving it at the creature’s face in the form of large spikes of ice, stopping it in its tracks. It let out a strangled scream then dropped to the floor, twitching once or twice before laying still.

Far from relaxing, Loki swiped the sword clean and made his way back to the others. That creature might be dead, but there was still the matter of the one causing the disappearances, for he was quite sure they were different beings.

“What the hell happened?” Steve demanded the second he reached them, “Where are they?”

“Dead,” Loki replied without preamble, “The ‘child’ was not, in fact, a child at all.”

“You knew?”

Loki shook his head, taking the slight accusation in stride under the circumstances. “Its shadow revealed it as it left the room, but whether it always did so or not, I cannot say. Either way, it is dead; which leaves us two more that we know of.”

“One of which is in here,” Cerise pointed out, “And we don’t even know what it looks like.”

“Holy fuck, it’s him!” the man Loki had spelled silent suddenly blurted, startling them all. They looked to see him pointing at Chris, who was staring back at him just as blankly as he’d been that whole time. “It’s fucking _ him, _ I saw it!”

“What are you talking about?” Lucy’s friend asked, looking between them both.

“He just fucking touched that guy and he just… fucking disappeared!”

It was then they noticed they were down another person, and they all looked at Chris, the nearest to him backing away.

“I’m not… sure what you mean,” Chris said slowly, “Are you feeling okay?”

“_ Fuck _ you, I _ saw _ you!”

“Man, you’ve been full of shit since we found you,” the injured man dismissed.

“Except he shouldn’t be able to talk unless it was important,” Pepper countered and looked to Loki, “Right?”

“Indeed,” Loki confirmed, narrowing his eyes at Chris.

Chris blinked slowly. “I guess this face has served its purpose,” he said.

He twitched a bit then out of his back sprouted eight thin legs; he fell forward and a spider-like creature burst out of him, pieces of human skin and grey suit still clinging to parts of it. There were screams as they all backed away from the creature, and as it prepared to leap at them the man Loki had silenced grabbed the nurse, who had backed into him, and shoved her at it, much to her terror. The creature reared up and wrapped its front legs around the woman, and in the next second she was gone.

“The fuck’s the matter with you!!” the injured man shouted, being helped to his feet by the remaining lab tech and the other man from Steve’s group.

“The hell with all of you; I’m getting out of here!” the man spat then turned and ran towards the front doors.

Loki’s wards were meant to keep things out, not in, and so the man got through them with ease, running off down the street. Steve reached behind the front desk and threw a clipboard he found at the spider creature as it made to rush at the others, hitting it square in the face before the clipboard disappeared and earning an angry shriek as it turned its attention to him. The next moment, it was surrounded by copy upon copy of Loki, causing it to have to split its attention between them all as they threw bursts of seidr at it that mostly just stung it; it angrily swatted at them, but the copies merely fizzled out into nothing and were replaced by new ones.

The real Loki was behind the creature, drawing a sigil upon the ground before him with blood he had retrieved from the woman the creature pretending to be Sarah had killed. When he was done, he let his copies fizzle out and whistled sharply, getting the creature’s attention. He eyed it challengingly with a smirk and it wasted no time in going for him, stopping abruptly as it became caught in the trap and letting out an enraged shriek as it realised the fact.

“Get Barton!” Loki called to Steve as he went around the creature and rejoined the others, “That will not hold it for long.”

Steve took Loki’s word for it and went over to Clint, picking him up in a fireman’s carry and hoping he wouldn’t exacerbate his injuries _ too _ much. They hurried out of the building, staying as close to each other as possible, and turned down the street, leaving the shrieking from the spider creature behind after a while. The atmosphere was tense, as they all remembered there was at least one more monster out there, if not more, and so they kept an eye out around them at all times, hoping it would be enough.

Cerise manoeuvred her chair to get closer to Loki, who looked down at her questioningly a moment, figuring she had something to tell him. “We going to acknowledge that thing was _ wearing someone’s skin?” _

“And the other creature was a shapeshifter of sorts,” he pointed out, “Whatever they are, it seems they lure their prey to complacency through infiltration. It is very likely to become a problem when the spider breaks free.”

“Well, I just thought he was in shock or something, but that Chris guy it was pretending to be was creepy as hell. Might be a giveaway if it doesn’t really know how to act more human.”

“Unless that was merely its first attempt, and it has learned better now.”

“… Yeah. Unless that.”

“You know I will do everything in my considerable power to keep you safe, Cerise.”

She breathed a laugh at the probably unintentional humble-brag. “You can give me my knives back. I promise I won’t throw one at you unless you start acting like a zombie.” Loki chuckled and conjured a belt of throwing knives strapped across her chest, earning a smile. “You’re the best.”

“Naturally,” he drawled.

They continued on in silence until the man who’d left came running towards them from the other side of the street, bleeding from numerous cuts all over him and pleading for help. Before he got far, a blur tackled him, dropping him hard on the pavement. The creature was fairly humanoid in appearance, but it had no discernible eyes and the five fingers of its two hands ended in long sharp claws, which it raked across the man haphazardly, pulling screams of pain from him. Loki summoned a knife into his hand and took aim, but the creature grabbed hold of the man’s leg in its tooth-filled maw and dragged him away down another street before he could throw the blade, the man’s agonized screams fading into almost a hum before long from the distance, though no further.

For a moment, no one spoke, then the injured man broke the silence shakily. “Well… at least now we know what it looks like.”

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Lucy’s friend half muttered.

“Let’s just… keep moving,” Steve said, carefully readjusting his hold on Clint.

The man’s screams sometimes sounded closer as they kept moving, putting them all even further on edge, moreso by the fact that the creature did not seem to be very interested in actually killing its victim. Occasionally, they saw him being thrown or dragged around in the distance, but he and the creature were always gone before anyone could even think to try to do something. Suddenly the screams cut off entirely, the silence practically ringing in its absence. They looked at each other and then around them, but nothing moved.

At least, not until the broken and bloodied corpse was dropped in their midst.

The reaction was immediate; they scattered, backing away in horror and/or revulsion. Loki gathered seidr in his free hand and Steve shifted Clint to his side and grabbed his shield from his back in preparation for an attack, prompting Pepper to take out the taser Tony had made her and Cerise to take out one of the throwing knives from its belt. The creature was fast indeed, launching itself at Steve from the shadows and knocking him – and consequently Clint – to the ground, though Steve managed to keep the shield between him and the creature’s teeth.

Loki prepared to assist him, when a motion out of the corner of his eye caught his attention the split second before a second creature jumped at them. It went for the injured man and the other two holding him upright, slashing at the injured man’s throat and taking his head with it, and biting down on the remaining lab tech’s face as it fell, knocking the remaining man off to the side and shallowly scoring its claws across his side in the process. With both creatures occupied, the remaining man frantically crawled away, coming up besides Cerise and Loki.

Pepper aimed the taser at the creature attacking Steve and pressed the button as soon as he had managed to kick it away, cranking the voltage up to the highest setting. The creature stopped in its tracks and began to convulse, hissing in pain. As soon as the charge ran out, Steve was on it, slamming it with his shield hard enough to break some of its teeth and pushing it off its feet before slamming the shield into its mouth. It flailed its arms, scoring angry lines down Steve’s back and across his ribs, but Steve pushed the pain aside and bore down with all his strength until he split the top half of the creature’s skull clean off, causing it to seize under him and nearly buck him right off before falling still.

The other creature had quickly lost interest in its victims when they stopped moving in favour of Loki, who had begun using copies to both lure it away from Cerise and the other civilian, as well as keep it off balance and counteract its speed as he probed it for weak spots. As soon as he found its skin to not be denser than he could cut, he was on it in full with his daggers, rendering one of its arms useless before long.

“On your six!” Steve called as he looked up from his opponent, giving Loki just enough warning to dodge a third creature that had leapt at him, causing it to instead crash into its fellow.

This, it seemed, was the limit for some, as Lucy’s friend muffled a scream behind her hand before turning and running off, Pepper calling out for her but knowing better than to run off into the unknown at least until her taser recovered its charge. Steve moved to help Loki, and Clint began to regain consciousness, which Pepper took full advantage of to help move him out of the potential battleground. Cerise and the other civilian ducked into the nearest building, some kind of store, and began looking for anything they could use, leading the man to grab a camping hatchet while Cerise found a grill lighter and a can of bug repellent.

They were about to head back out, when they heard a whimper further to the back of the store. Exchanging a look, the man slowly made his way towards the sound with Cerise close behind, weapons at the ready. They rounded an aisle and let out shocked gasps at the mess of blood and remains they came upon before looking around nervously for signs of whatever had caused it. Some movement to the side caught their attention and they looked to find a young man cowering in the corner. The man’s first instinct was to go to him, but Cerise held him back, feeling something was not quite right. She remembered what Loki had said about the creature pretending to be Sarah then willed her orb of light forward a bit.

Sure enough, the shadow the young man cast was not in any way human.

Realising it was discovered, the creature shed its stolen appearance and rushed towards them. Cerise brought up the lighter and sprayed the bug repellent into the flame, creating an impromptu flamethrower that made the creature quickly backpedal. The man grabbed whatever solid/sharp objects he could find and threw it at the creature, giving Cerise the chance to back her chair away more or less safely. She pulled a knife from her belt and took aim, managing to land a hit on one of the creature’s eyes. It let out a very human sounding scream that sent shivers down their spine, but she didn’t let it distract her as she threw another knife, taking out the creature’s other eye.

While it screamed in pain and clawed at its face in a futile attempt to get at the knives, the man grabbed a few nearby cans of lighter fluid that Cerise pointed out and sprayed the creature as directly as he could manage without getting killed. Once the cans were empty, Cerise lit a fuel-doused rag wrapped around the head of the man’s hatchet and threw it, lighting the creature up. It flailed, knocking into the aisles and displays, and they took the chance to leave the store, just in time to see Loki and Steve finish killing the last creature.

As soon as he was sure it was dead, Loki ran up to Cerise, kneeling before her and placing his hands on her thighs. “Are you alright? Where did you-”

He cut off as the creature in the store burst out, in flames and screaming that all too human sounding scream, falling onto the pavement and twitching sporadically until it finally died. Loki looked between it and Cerise and the other civilian bemusedly.

“What? Can’t let you guys have all the fun,” she shrugged, her slight trembling Loki felt under his hands belying her casualness.

“Dude, your girlfriend is… pretty badass,” the man said in awe.

“Of that, I am quite aware,” Loki replied with a slight, proud smile.

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short… uh,” her brows furrowed, “Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name?”

“Oh, it’s John.”

“John,” she nodded, “Well, you helped. A lot.” He only shrugged a bit bashfully in response, and she turned back to Loki, touching the edge of a light gash on his cheek. “You okay?”

“It is nothing,” he dismissed. “More importantly, we cannot stay here. Who knows how many more of these creatures there are.”

“Shit; where’s that analyst?” John asked, noticing her absence as Pepper came over with Steve supporting Clint.

“She ran off,” Pepper replied, “I have no idea where.”

“Then she is likely dead,” Loki said as he stood up straight.

No one contested that, knowing he was very likely correct, and so they kept moving, stopping a ways away to bandage wounds. They discussed their options along the way and decided to make their way out of the city, to see if the situation was limited to it or if it spread beyond. If the former, they would have a chance to send word to the other Avengers, then come back and deal with any remaining creatures in force. If the latter…

They elected not to think about that and what it would mean.

“Hey, what’s that?” John asked, pointing ahead to a corner, where something was shining.

Steve went over to check and came back with a heavy flashlight likely once belonging to a police officer. “That’s weird; the one I had when we met up stopped working. Why is this one working?”

“We had one, back at the tower. Before we left, remember?” Pepper asked Loki, who nodded. “It stopped working, too, after a while.”

“No…” Loki countered, thinking back, “It ceased working after we found the spider creature in its disguise.” He turned to Steve. “And as you said, the one you had ceased working after you came near us, with the creature in our midst.”

“So, they don’t work around those things,” Steve concluded. “If that’s true, then we can use it.”

“We should probably get more,” Cerise suggested, “In case we get separated again.”

“Good call,” Steve agreed, then turned to Loki, “Could you manage that?”

“Of course; who do you think you are talking to?” Loki scoffed, deeply offended. 

“Oh, gods, don’t get him started,” Cerise groaned, burying her face in her hands, earning an unamused look from him as he conjured a flashlight for each of them.

They checked to make sure all the flashlights were working then continued on, with Loki summoning another of Clint’s bows and quivers from the tower that the archer was reluctant to accept, until Steve reminded him the alternative was to be unarmed. The plan worked, as they were alerted to the creatures when they drew near enough to affect the flashlights, giving them a bit of warning. That did not quite make the fact that they were attacked by five creatures just in the first two hours of their journey any better, but at least they had warning. Fortunately, they didn’t run into any more of the mimicking creatures, whose human like screams deeply unsettled them.

Finally, they reached the city limits, and encountered one very big problem.

“… Where the fuck is the rest of New York?” Clint vocalised what they were all wondering.

For indeed, the street ended in black nothingness, with no sign of anything having ever existed beyond it. Loki stepped closer to the almost fog-like blackness, taking a globe of light in hand and holding it up to it, but the light could not seem to pierce through at all.

“This complicates things,” he muttered to himself.

“Now what?” Pepper asked.

Loki thought for a moment then turned back to them. “That spider creature; everything it touched disappeared, but it must have gone _ some_where. It may be that it can pass through whatever kind of barrier this is.”

“So, what; you’re suggesting we catch it?” Clint asked sceptically, “From what you guys said, we can’t even touch it.”

“No, but he stopped it before,” John said, “You weren’t conscious for it.”

“He also said that trap wouldn’t hold it for long,” Steve reminded before turning to Loki, “Could you make one that can?”

“Perhaps, with the right materials.”

“What kind of materials?”

“I used blood for the last one, but that would not be a wise choice now.”

“As opposed to ‘at all’?” Clint said, an expression of clear disgust on his face.

Loki rolled his eyes. “Spellwork can be messy, Barton; not for the weak of stomach,” he retorted coolly. “The blood I used before came from someone already dead. If I used the blood of someone still living on a creature whose full abilities I do not know; it could have very unpleasant consequences for the donor.”

“So, if you had access to blood from something dead, it could work?” Cerise asked, though she sounded a bit odd.

“Likely; why?” Loki asked back as they turned to look at her, to find she was facing away from them.

They followed her line of sight to see six of the fast creatures creeping towards them in the distance, too far to have affected their flashlights yet. Not wanting to find out the hard way what might happen if they touched the barrier behind them, they ran down the street further into the city away from the creatures, who hastened their pace in pursuit. Once they were far enough, Clint took up a defensive position before the civilians while Steve and Loki took on the creatures head on, their previous encounters having served to solidify their strategy against them well enough that they had minimal trouble. With the threat dealt with, Loki set about collecting as much of the creatures’ blood as he could.

“So, that’s one step down, but how do we even lure that thing in to trap it?” Cerise asked once he was done.

“You seriously see nothing wrong with what your boyfriend just did?” Clint asked incredulously.

“I’ve seen a giant spider burst out of an accountant’s skin, a guy get decapitated, and set fire to a… _ thing _ pretending to be human; all in just a few hours. Not to mention all those other things trying to kill us, and the fact that we really don’t even know what the hell is going on. At this point, I don’t care; I just want this to be over,” she retorted.

“… Fair enough,” he admitted.

“So how _ do _ we lure it?” Steve asked, wanting nothing more than to be done with the whole thing, if only so he could take a much needed nap.

“I have a feeling we will not need to,” Loki replied. “I cannot be sure, but we may be the only prey it has left to hunt; if so, it will most certainly come for us.”

“How do we know it’s just one?” John asked, “There were a lot more of those fast things.”

“It was the only one that talked,” Cerise said before Loki could, “The other one, the mimic; it just gave us a name to call it, but didn’t say anything else. The other ones don’t seem to talk at all. That spider thing actually communicated.”

“Exactly,” Loki nodded then gestured at the fallen creatures, “These seem more like… pawns. They are numerous and well suited for slaughter, but they are not very intelligent. Those mimics possessed enough cleverness for infiltration, but not much strategy, and thus were easily killed.”

“So, what, the spider thing is, like, their leader or something?”

“Possibly.”

“Well, if we’re going to try to trap it, we should get to it,” Pepper said, looking around nervously, “We’re really out in the open here.”

Loki nodded in agreement then turned to Steve. “Bring one of those,” he said, indicating one of the dead creatures.

“What, why?” Steve asked confusedly, nevertheless moving to do so.

“The creature knows I can hold it now; if it sees the sigil, it will avoid it. I can conceal it with an illusion, but it may smell the blood regardless.”

“But if there’s a corpse nearby, it won’t think much of it,” Steve realised.

They made their way back to the city limits, facing the swirling inky blackness of the barrier, and Loki got to work drawing the sigil while the rest of them kept watch for any creatures. He was almost finished when they heard a familiar scream and looked to the source to see Lucy’s friend, bloodied and bruised, running towards them, two of the fast creatures on her tail. They seemed to be toying with her, getting close enough to push her or scratch her, but not moving in for the kill. Clint nocked two arrows and fired them as soon as the woman moved out of the way, landing a clean head shot on one of the creatures.

The other one seemed to think him a better target after, changing course and going straight for him. Clint made no move to evade it, letting it get close, and it soon learned why as a shield cracked the side of its skull, closely followed by another arrow straight to its throat. It was dead by the time it hit the pavement. As the others looked around for more of the creatures, Lucy’s friend headed straight towards Cerise, who was watching Loki’s back a little apart from the rest, and whose eyes widened as she noticed what they had all missed.

“Loki!” she cried out shakily.

The sheer panic in her voice immediately got his attention and he stood and turned to face her, to find her pointing her flashlight at Lucy’s friend.

Her flashlight that wasn’t working, despite the creatures being dead.

He didn’t think. He just reacted, running for her as the spider creature in its stolen skin dropped the pretense of a limp and rushed towards Cerise, its hands outstretched. Hands that he got in between, accepting as they grabbed hold of him.

He would not let it have _ her. _

It felt like being torn apart and put back together, faintly reminding him of his fall into the Void. Though unlike the end of _ that, _this time he managed to stay on his feet, immediately knocking the creature back with a burst of seidr it didn’t even fight. He cast a quick look around to see they were in what appeared to be the city, but covered in black web, then summoned a sword into his hand as the creature carelessly rent its disguise apart to reveal itself, parrying its attack and dodging to the side. The manoeuver proved his suspicion correct: He could touch the creature there.

Which meant he could kill it.

“Such a silly girl,” the creature spoke in a woman’s voice he vaguely recalled as Lucy’s, “Knowing her friend was dead and yet coming to me anyway. The others were not so trusting.” It tilted its head to the side. “You however… They will believe you would survive.”

“Oh, I will,” Loki replied assuredly.

The creature laughed before lunging at him. He blocked its strike, sending a burst of seidr at its back legs to trip it and scoring a hit to its side it hissed at. The creature backed away, turning and launching a strand of black web at him that he dodged, not wanting to find out what it would do to him if it touched him. He conjured throwing knives one after the other, forcing it further away to avoid getting hit, and then took the opportunity to fill the area with a thick mist, disappearing into it.

He scored hits where he could, testing the creature’s defenses as well as attempting to keep it off balance, though not as successfully as he would have liked. In between evading its attacks, he drew sigils on the ground using his own energy, weaving a web of his own design. The mist wouldn’t last forever, he knew, but it bought him the time he needed to complete his trap. As it cleared, the creature prepared to launch its web at him again, only to find it could barely move, for Loki’s spell slowed it considerably.

Enough.

He ran straight at it, changing the sword for a glaive on the way, dropping to his knees as he reached it to dodge its last ditch attempt to attack him and impaling it, lifting it clean off the ground and forcing it onto its backs as it screeched in agony. It tried to bat him away with its legs, but the attempts bounced off the shield he had placed around himself in anticipation of just that. Once it realised it could not harm him, it stopped its efforts and instead let out a laugh, still using Lucy’s voice, causing him to pause in driving the blade all the way through and finishing the job.

“Clever you,” it commended. “I underestimated you.”

“Most do,” he replied, earning another laugh. After a moment’s pause, he figured he might as well ask, “What was the point of this all?”

“Just a little test,” it replied simply, “Humans make such convenient prey, especially in a city such as this. They were not counting on you, or the other one, but it works just as well. The next brood will be better; the enemy will not know what hit them.”

He frowned, not sure what to make of the information. “I assume your masters are watching, if this is a test.”

The creature let out a laugh. “Don’t bother with threats; they are not interested in this planet. It was only a means to an end. And don’t ask who they are; they would not leave such information with an expendable tool. Kill me, then, victor; the test will end, the arena will fall, and you will be returned to your lives.”

“If you lie; no afterlife will save you from my wrath,” Loki warned. The creature only laughed again, and so he drove the glaive all the way through, earning a shriek of pain.

“Well… played.”

As it died, the world around him shifted, as if dissolving away, and he found himself back in the city, the barrier closeby. Cerise was the first to notice him as he returned to them, crying out his name and getting out of her chair to run towards him as best she could manage, not even bothering with her cane, and he hurried his steps to meet her halfway if only to keep her from hurting herself any further. As soon as she was close enough she launched herself at him, and somewhere in the back of his mind he was glad she was, for the moment, only human; for he was quite sure he wouldn’t be able to breathe if her grip were any stronger.

The others were significantly more cautious as they approached, with Clint keeping an arrow nocked; they only relaxed when their flashlights continued working once they were close enough for them to be affected if he were not who he appeared to be. Pepper had brought Cerise’s chair and Loki set her down on it, keeping a hand on her leg as she settled and pushing some seidr into it to soothe at least some of the pain he knew she would be feeling once the adrenaline wore off.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Steve said, “We were worried for a second, there.”

Loki scoffed. “Well, thank you for the vote of confidence.”

“Hey, guys, look!” John said suddenly, causing them to look over at him warily, then to where he was pointing.

The barrier was fading, slowly but surely, until they could see through it and to the veritable army of SHIELD agents and assorted first responders beyond. As the black substance dispersed, the city began lighting up with the sunlight they had not even stopped to wonder at its absence in all the chaos. For a moment, there were dozens of guns pointed their way, until some agents recognised Steve and Clint and the call to stand down rang out, while some gave orders to inform Fury. 

As everyone debated about the safety of crossing into the city even with the barrier gone, Thor broke out of the crowd and made a straight line for Loki, nearly knocking them both to the ground from the force of the hug he crushed him into, much to the Trickster’s irritation.

“Thor, for Hel’s sake, get off me!” he snapped, trying to get out of his brother’s grasp with no success while the rest of them tried not to laugh.

Once Fury had been informed of their presence within the city during The Event, as it was being called, they were led out the nearest SHIELD facility to determine they were not contaminated with anything dangerous to anyone else, then had their wounds treated before being debriefed. Loki in particular was kept longer after revealing what the spider creature had told him, which went down as well as could be expected and it was only the promise of seeing Cerise immediately after that kept him from losing his temper.

Tony was with her in the infirmary room when he arrived but he quickly excused himself after one look at Loki’s expression, thanking him with a sincerity that startled him for looking after Pepper before walking out the door. Loki went straight over to the bed and took Cerise’s face in his hands, crushing his lips to hers almost frantically, the tension finally bleeding out of him at seeing that she was safe.

“It’s over,” she breathed when they finally parted, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of the fact than like she actually believed it.

“It is over,” he replied, sounding far more sure of it, which reassured her in turn. He waved at her to move over, joining her on the bed and pulling her to sit on his lap, being careful of her leg. “You ran to me,” he said disapprovingly after a moment.

“Save it; I already got scolded. Twice.”

“Good. You know better.”

She hummed half in annoyance, not really able to argue with that. “Tony said they’re still cleaning the city, but all traces of that barrier and those creatures are gone. And apparently, they have eyewitness accounts that when the power went out, these weird aliens showed up and started grabbing people, making them disappear. I don’t remember anything like that; do you?”

“I do not.”

“Well, according to Pepper’s assistant, _ we’re _ the ones that suddenly disappeared, not the other way around.”

He nodded. “It makes sense; it would be far easier to displace a few dozen people than a few thousand. Our not remembering such a thing might have been intentional, or merely a side effect of the process.”

“What was the point? Just… all of that death, all of that…” she trailed off, shuddering, and he kissed her temple and ran his fingers through her hair until she stopped trembling.

“A test,” he said at length, then scoffed, “We were a test of the creatures’ effectiveness, nothing more.”

“Seriously??” she asked, pulling away enough to look up at him incredulously.

“I am afraid so, if that creature was to be believed. Thor has gone to Asgard to speak with Odin on the matter; perhaps they might find more answers,” he frowned, “Though I don’t know what, if anything, would come of it.”

She hummed then rested back against him, curling up as best she could and tucking her head under his chin. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and simply held her, both needing the comfort badly. She was discharged a few hours later and he took them straight to his and Thor’s floor in the tower, not wanting to leave her alone in her apartment any more than she wanted to be left. Steve spent some time with them, as did Clint, surprisingly. John they had bid goodbye to at the facility, as he was going to be with family once he was discharged, and Tony had taken Pepper on an ‘impromptu vacation’, in his own words.

After dinner, for which Natasha and Bruce had dropped by, they dispersed to their own floors, though there was an underlying reluctance on some of their parts as they bid each other goodnight. Loki waited until Cerise – who was under strict instructions not to even attempt to walk until further notice – to move from her chair into his bed beside him before turning the lights off, kissing her then draping an arm over her when she lied down nestled as close to him as possible.

Some moments later, Loki turned one of the lights back on and they relaxed significantly, eventually managing to fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact!: I rolled a d20 to determine Señor Asshole's fate before he died, and rolled a nat 20. I also rolled for how many creatures they'd have to fight and, well... My dice are pretty sadistic, is what I'm saying. XD
> 
> Please comment! I could use the ego boost. lmao


End file.
